The houseware products on offer this weekend at Niche Co Lab’s first pop-up event (in Mount Pleasant’s Vanglo house) are sourced local and lovely

Photograph by: EMA PETER

Fresh off a plane from San Francisco, local interior designer Gaile Guevara of Gaile Guevara Interior Design & Creative believes even more strongly in the concept behind the Niche Co Lab’s first pop-up event, which she helped curate and happens this weekend at Mount Pleasant’s iconic Vanglo house: to connect the architecture and design community and the public with local retailers and artisan producers of housewares.

Guevara is one of the members of the Niche Co Lab, the collective behind this event, which includes Martin Warren, whose company Vanglo Sustainable Construction Group built the Vanglo house; events specialist Leonie Hoerster; Yashar Nijati of The China Town Experiment (the incredibly successful rotating pop-up shop that offers people the chance to try out a storefront) and interior designer Laura Melling.

“When we built the house we were trying to build a sustainable development as much as possible,” says Warren. “And we wanted to continue that through with the styling of the home as well. So we had this idea we’d go to local stores and get them involved, rather than using a generic staging company.”

The pop-up event came about because of the number of people who came to view the house when it was on the market (it recently sold) and wanted to buy the things they found inside.

“We found that even if the house (in the desirable Main Street area) wasn’t something people wanted to pick up then and there, it was something they saw within the house. We were taking names from people and connecting them with the artisans producing those products.”

Buying housewares from local artisans and small local retailers is the way, long-term, believes Guevara, who admits to having a pet peeve with waste: seeing a lot of disposable consumerism and disposable real estate in her business. Guevara believes that people need to get away from just thinking about the initial price, when they’re purchasing an item for their home and think about the actual cost of what they’re buying.

“Every time we purchase something that is made outside of Vancouver and Canada, she says, “we are also taking away those dollars that are supporting our local design community and economy.” Guevara feels the importance of shopping and thinking locally is more important than ever as Vancouver continues to grow at such a rapid rate and the number of box-store chains and U.S. retail brands like Nordstrom Inc. steadily increase.

The 25 local suppliers whose products were used to dress Vanglo house fit the bill. Barter Collective is a local company with furniture throughout Vanglo house, including their western red cedar blocks, for seating etc. Over the past few years this company has focused heavily on using local wood manufacturers and artisans; using materials like B.C.’s alder wood and marble from Vancouver Island.

Anne Pearson’s design concept store Vancouver Special on Main Street is another local retailer whose items feature heavily in Vanglo house. With an architecture background, Pearson’s shop offers good affordable modern designs in furniture and household accessories; specifically catering to young professionals.

Woodlot, a small and relatively new company in Vancouver produces the handmade soy candles that appear in the Vanglo house office. A good number of the local retailers and artisans included in this Niche Co Lab pop-up are launching new lines there.

“As interior designers we’ve been really lucky to work with all these artisans,” says Guevara. “We wanted to show off what they do best.” Events like this, she says, are very important because a lot of these local retailers and producers can’t compete with the large retail chains in terms of exposure.

“We’ve seen it in food,” says Guevara. “The movement toward eating locally and more healthily and now it’s time to start looking at the home: how people are choosing to support the community and raise their kids.”

The event happens at Vanglo house (135 East 17th Ave., Vancouver) this weekend and runs from Saturday, Aug. 23 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to Sunday, Aug. 24, (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

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